China deployed military aircraft and ships to track and monitor a US Navy plane as it was transiting the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, as Beijing said it was on “high alert”
US military planes armed with torpedoes flew over Taiwan, putting China on “high alert” as the two nations continue to clash.
China deployed military aircraft and ships to track and monitor a US Navy plane transiting the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, Beijing said.
The US Navy’s 7th fleet said in a statement a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft flew through the strait’s international space “in accordance with international law”. The transit upheld navigational rights for all nations and “demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” it added.
The US is Taiwan’s most important supporter and arms provider, and American military ships and aircraft regularly transit the waterway separating China from self-ruled Taiwan. Beijing claims the East Asian island as its own territory and threatens to annex it, by force if necessary.
China criticised the US mission and said it endangered regional peace and stability, according to a statement by Colonel Cao Jun, spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command Air Force.
Beijing had “organised naval and air forces to monitor and guard the trajectory of the US aircraft and effectively responded and dealt with it”, Cao added.
China sends military ships or planes near Taiwan almost daily. On Monday, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry reported a Chinese balloon over the sea north of the island.
Last month, China sent a record one-day total of 153 aircraft, 14 navy vessels and 12 Chinese government ships near the island as part of military drills in reaction to Taiwan’s president rejecting Beijing’s claims of sovereignty.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence said 90 of the aircraft, including warplanes, helicopters and drones, were spotted within Taiwan’s air defence identification zone. The single-day record counted aircraft from 5:02 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Shipping traffic was operating as normal, the ministry said.
Taiwan remained defiant. “Our military will definitely deal with the threat from China appropriately,” Joseph Wu, secretary-general of Taiwan’s security council, said at a forum in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital. “Threatening other countries with force violates the basic spirit of the United Nations Charter to resolve disputes through peaceful means.”
Taiwan’s Presidential Office also called on China to “cease military provocations that undermine regional peace and stability and stop threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom.”
